Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Force India 'yet to unleash our true potential'

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Vijay Mallya says Force India has yet to show its true potential after two disappointing races at the start of the season.

The first race of the season in Australia saw the red flag interruption badly hurt Force India's planned one-stop strategy, with Nico Hulkenberg recovering to finish in seventh place while Sergio Perez failed to score. In Bahrain both cars suffered front wing damage to relegate them to the back of the midfield and team principal Mallya is waiting to see what the team is truly capable of.

“It feels as though we’ve yet to unleash our true potential this season," Mallya said. "Both the races so far have been heavily compromised, either by our own mistakes or outside circumstances, so I’d like to see what we can achieve with a clean, trouble-free race to the flag.

"When things go to plan, we know we can compete well inside the top ten and I expect everyone in the team to be pushing hard to reverse our recent fortunes.”

While a tight midfield makes it harder for Force India to recover from the sort of problems it suffered in Bahrain, Mallya welcomes the increased competition.

“The battle in the middle of the pack is too close to call this season and it means that there’s even more pressure on teams and drivers to deliver, especially in qualifying. It’s going to be very exciting for the fans and that is what we want to see in Formula One.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.